Tenessee Boy WIth Skeletal Dysplasia Convinces 10 Legislators To Spend Day In A Wheelchair

Mar 19, 2020 by apost team

At just 14 years old, Alex Johnson, who has a rare skeletal disorder that prevents him from walking, convinced 10 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives last month to use wheelchairs at the state capitol in Nashville for a day to raise awareness and show the lawmakers what it’s like to live with a wheelchair.

Doctors diagnosed the Lebanon, Tennessee teen with skeletal dysplasia, a rare skeletal disorder that affects the growth of joints and bones, at a young age, according to WSMV News 4 Nashville. Although Johnson could walk as a baby, Johnson started using a walker early on, eventually switching to a wheelchair in the first grade.

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It was just a few years after the transition when Johnson came up with his idea: the “Spend a Day in My Wheels” challenge, according to a press release from the Tennessee House Republican Caucus. The challenge would help his fifth-grade classmates gain further insight into what life was like in a wheelchair.

“I designed 'Spend a Day in My Wheels' to raise awareness for people with mobility devices,” Johnson said in the press release. “My challenge gives people a real-life perspective of the difficulties wheelchair users face on a daily basis. My hope is that through my challenge we can make the world more accessible.”

And last month on Feb. 11, the eighth-grade Friendship Christian School student brought his idea all the way to the state legislator with the Team ALeX “Spend A Day in My Wheels” challenge. The event, which the legislator put on with the help of State Rep. Clark Boyd, R-Lebanon, was held to promote inclusivity and to raise awareness surrounding the challenges that people who use mobility devices face everyday.

The challenge demonstrated how hard it truly is to understand many of the challenges people who use wheelchairs face without living the experience.

"I have no experience with a wheelchair," Boyd said in an interview with WSMV News 4 Nashville. "Even in a building that is handicap accessible, still you bump into doors. You bump into walls. Some of the doors become very heavy for someone in a wheelchair. Opening a refrigerator door, doors seem to be a pretty big challenge."

Thanks to some help from The Permobil Foundation in Lebanon, Tennessee — the disability rights organization that provided extra wheelchairs —10 members of the legislator from both sides of the aisle participated, including State Rep. Clark Boyd, Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison and State Rep. John Mark Windle.

"Our whole community is very supportive of Alex and proud of the effort he's made to create greater understanding about what it's like to live with a disability," Boyd said in the press release. "He's an amazing young man who has found a way to use his disability as an ability to educate others."

It’s safe to say that Johnson achieved his goal. Not only was he able to raise awareness through the ensuing media coverage, he also seems to have made a lasting impression on the Tennessee legislature — lawmakers who can continue to spread his message and affect change on Johnson’s behalf.

What do you think about Alex's “Spend a Day in My Wheels” challenge? Let us know what your thoughts are, and pass Alex’s uplifting message on to others.